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When the Conservative negotiating team sat down to sort out a coalition on the day after the 2010 general election, our Liberal Democrat counterparts were quite clear about one thing they needed above all else: a fixed-term parliament.

They feared that if the Tories became more popular and the Liberals less so – which did indeed happen – then we could pull the rug from under them at any time by calling another election. Since the very same thought, more wickedly, crossed our own minds, we could understand why they needed this and we agreed to it.